biteho.com

Path of Exile continues to keep new content rolling out at a steady pace. Following the Betrayal expansion last December, the developers at Grinding Gear Games still have big plans ahead for the online action-RPG. In addition to the launch of their next update, Synthesis, the developers will also bring the long-awaited release of the PlayStation 4 edition in March.

The Synthesis expansion launches on March 8 for PC and March 11 for Xbox One. It will shake up the game’s familiar spell system for something more tactical and user-friendly, while also introducing some new features that will give greater incentive for players to revisit past locations. Along with new additions to the game’s league system, allowing players to either start fresh with a new character or continue with their existing character, there’s also a new storyline that deals with restoring the memories of a mysterious character who has access to a large arsenal of spells and loot–all set within a bizarre dreamscape.

Managing director Chris Wilson spoke with us at great length about what to expect for Path of Exile’s newest expansion, and how this one will be the beginning of an eventful year for the online-RPG–culminating at year’s end with another substantial update.

“The title of this expansion relates to the actual Synthesis league–which is for the new content in the game–but the other part of this is for the really big rebalance and changes in Path of Exile,” said Wilson. “It sounds like a routine thing, but the scope of it is a bit unprecedented for us. The goal is to try to open up a lot more viable build combinations for players. And honestly, as compelling as it is to release new leagues and other forms of new content, the rebalances often add more replayability to the game.”

Along with new updates to Betrayal’s syndicate gameplay, which will be rolled into the main campaign, the next expansion also rebalances a number of combat skills and spells in the main game. However, the main conceit of Synthesis is the larger quest to help the new NPC Cavas restore his lost memories. Scattered around the world are secret portals that open up the pathway to Cavas’ memories. Upon entering, you’ll explore a miniature world full of dangerous monsters and valuable loot. Once you reach the finish, you’ll acquire a Memory Fragment.

Eventually, you can take these fragments to the Memory Nexus, Cavas’ base of operations. Fragments can then be used to fill out spaces on the Memory Map, an ethereal space where new memories form a continuous set of mini-dungeons to explore on the map. If you’re able to complete a full sequence, you’ll acquire special loot and rewards from Cavas. However, the memories will eventually decay, making them unstable, causing some strange effects while within the memory. Once fully decayed, they’ll be wiped from the map.

In addition to the new gameplay loop with the Memory Map, one of the more substantial changes coming in Synthesis is the rebalancing of the spell system. Wilson stressed that this was the most difficult part of the expansion, which was also a long time coming.

“It’s not just numerical values we’re adjusting on the spells, we’re kind of fundamentally altering how they work,” said Wilson. “There’s about 40-ish caster spells are all augmentable with several hundreds of support gems, and also compared to the over 110 different skills you can use as well. They can go through all these different shapes and timings, like a meteor-spell for instance. Having them all balanced was a very difficult task for the team, so it needed a lot of effort.”

Here’s a quick breakdown of features coming with Path of Exile’s newest expansion:

• The Memory Map: Over the course of the Synthesis expansion, you’ll acquire Memory Fragments which can be placed onto the Memory Map, creating a series of mini-dungeons to explore. Successfully exploring a full sequence will yield valuable loot and special rewards.
• Fractured Items: The fractured items are special items that have powerful buffs applied to them, but they also often come with a downside. To combat this, fractured gear can be re-rolled to shuffle stats and buffs.
• New Spells And Rebalancing: Over 40 spells have been overhauled and rebalanced. Furthermore, new spells and skills have been added into Path of Exile, including the first-ever Holy-elemental attack.
• New Unique Items: 16 new unique items have been incorporated into the game. Coming in the form of armor, weapons, and accessories, the unique items of Synthesis are among the most powerful items that Path of Exile has seen yet.
• Synthesized Items: In the Memory Nexus, players can use the synthesizer to turn three different fractured items to produce a new item with a set of new mods.

Throughout 2019, Grinding Gear will release three additional expansions following Synthesis. With the next ones coming in June, September, and December, the developer also plan to reveal the game’s most ambitious expansions yet in November at Path of Exile’s fan convention in New Zealand. During this event, two new major updates will be revealed–one of which is referred to as a mega-expansion by the developers. At this rate, Path of Exile’s continued growth, which has been going for six years now, won’t be slowing down any time soon.

For more on Path of Exile, including the launch of the upcoming expansion and PS4 edition, be sure to visit GameSpot in the weeks ahead.

Ubisoft has announced the next Special Operation is coming to Ghost Recon: Wildlands on February 27. Special Operation 4 will introduce new PvP and PvE content, as well as several community-requested features.

A brand-new PvE mode is included in Special Operation 4, although Ubisoft hasn’t yet revealed exact details for it other than that it would “test your endurance.” In a blog post, the developer did say that completing the mode for the first time will unlock a new outfit, and that more information would be shared “soon.” On the PvP side of things, Ghost War multiplayer will be getting a new class in Special Operation 4, as well as two additional maps. The new Ghost War class will be exclusive to Year 2 Pass holders for a week, before going live for everyone else on March 6.

Several community-requested features will go live in Special Operation 4 as well. You’ll now be able to change the time of day in the solo campaign. Both Battle and Prestige Crates have been updated, with all voice lines and several emotes moving from the former to the latter. Prestige Crates will also drop higher rarity items more often. A new browser will allow you to look through custom matches based on your selected criteria. Challenges will also have increased Prestige Credit rewards, and two new PvP events are being added to the pool.

In our Ghost Recon: Wildlands review, Miguel Concepcion gave the game a 7/10, writing, “As only the second open world game in the Clancyverse, Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a middlingly safe tactical shooter and a slightly wasted opportunity given the ambitious scope of its seemingly boundless map. While its main strength is its mission diversity, it doesn’t take long to lose the motivation after reaching El Sueno’s doorstep. Even with a foursome of highly trained friends, Wildlands eventually reveals its diminishing returns. The feeling of positive immediacy and dopamine hits begin to wane sooner than you expected from a game with such a large and diverse world.”

If you’ve played Fortnite for more than a couple of seasons with the Battle Pass in hand, you know the weekly ritual all too well by now. A new batch of challenges are released, and each week you head to the internet (preferably GameSpot’s essential guides) to find out where golden balloons are scattered, shooting galleries are located, or where exactly to search between landmarks. Then you hop into Fortnite with the sole intention of completing these challenges as quickly as humanly possible.

At this point, the majority of these challenges are monotonous, and completing them each week has become a bit of a chore. There’s an obligation to do them that evokes a feeling not too dissimilar from the compulsory urge you get to play an MMO each month purely because you’re paying a subscription fee.

Fortnite’s Battle Pass is good value, but only if you put in the time to get the most out of it, and that means completing challenges to earn battle stars, which in turn help you to gradually ascend through the tiers and unlock each of the skins, emotes, and whatever else is on offer for that particular season. You can even earn enough V-Bucks to purchase the next season without spending a dime of real money, provided you can resist the temptation to purchase any of the skins that go on sale in the item shop throughout the 10 weeks a season typically lasts.

The battle royale scene has heated up in recent months thanks to Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4‘s Blackout mode. These are now vying for attention alongside established games such as Fortnite and PUBG. Epic has responded in kind with the opportunity for anyone to earn Season 8’s Battle Pass free of charge. Fortnite isn’t going to start hemorrhaging too many of its 200 million players any time soon, but with more options for people to choose from, offering an appetising incentive to play Fortnite is a prudent move on Epic’s part.

In order to gain free access to Season 8’s Battle Pass you have to complete a particular amount of the new Overtime Challenges. Much like the regular challenges found in the game, their quality varies wildly, but there’s one key difference so far: You can complete most of them by simply playing the game.

Whether you’re hopping in a plane to travel between numerous locations or have your face buried in a walkthrough to find a gaggle of hidden collectibles, you regularly have to veer off course to complete Fortnite’s normal weekly challenges. Sure, these kinds of tasks encourage players to explore the map to a certain degree, and they do introduce gameplay variety beyond shooting to kill, but you’re already incentivised to visit brand-new areas of the map just to see what’s new, while The Block–a specific area of the map used to showcase user creations–disregards challenges completely because it isn’t feasible when the play space changes each week. Sadly, however, the Block is all too easy to ignore if your time is dedicated to completing challenges.

There are exceptions to this rule, of course, and while the straightforward act of killing three people with a shotgun isn’t the most inventive of challenges, it is something that can occur naturally while playing to win, or even playing to rack up as many kills as possible. Other similarly structured challenges might force you to go out of your way to use a weapon type you usually never do, or task you with approaching firefights with a builder’s mindset. Fortnite could do with more of these challenges, as well as others that reinvigorate the weekly grind, instead of relying on the fetch quest facsimiles. Playing the game shouldn’t feel like a compulsory chore each week if you want to get the most out of your Battle Pass purchase.

The things you’re doing [in Fortnite’s challenges] aren’t changing in enough meaningful ways from week to week and season to season

At this point in Fortnite’s lifecycle, particularly if you’ve been playing for more than a few seasons, the things you’re doing aren’t changing in enough meaningful ways from week to week and season to season. Shooting golden balloons might be different from dancing in front of various gargoyles, but it’s still a bland task you have to go out of your way to do, and this whole process has become disappointingly rote. Epic does an admirable job of trying to keep the game fresh each week, introducing new weapons, working in exciting world events, and so on, but when it comes to the Battle Pass the weekly makeup of challenges has become counterintuitive to this freshness.

With the most dynamic aspect of Fortnite becoming stale we could see a slice of Fortnite’s player base look to other battle royale experiences for a fresh twist on the formula. With high-quality alternatives such as Apex Legends now competing for our time, it feels imperative that Fortnite breaks out of this monotony. Offering a free Battle Pass for completing relatively easy tasks might be a shrewd idea, but the Overtime Challenges, like the regular weekly ones, only serve to highlight how lacklustre this aspect of the game has steadily become.

Treyarch’s big Operation Grand Heist update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has arrived on PS4. The update introduces a slew of new content to the online shooter, including a new Specialist, maps, and weapons, with even more still to come over the next few days.

Launching alongside the update today, February 19, is a new Specialist for multiplayer and Blackout modes: Outrider. Treyarch has also added a new multiplayer mode called One in the Chamber, while those with the Black Ops Pass have access to two new multiplayer maps, Casino and Lockup.

Black Ops Pass holders also get an exclusive character for Blackout: the Zombie gorilla Cosmic Silverback. As Treyarch recently teased, the Blackout map has also been expanded with a new locale called Ghost Town. The aboveground area is designed after the Black Ops II map Standoff, while the caverns below ground are inspired by the Zombies map Buried.

Speaking of Zombies, the mode has also received some new content in the form of the Death-Con Five Gauntlet for the Classified map. Treyarch has also implemented a new Perk, Ethereal Razor, which “substantially increases a player’s melee damage with area of effect and life re-gen for each hit.”

Rounding out the additions are new Black Market weapons, camos, outfits, accessories, and gestures. Treyarch has even more content on the way every day this week. Beginning February 20, the developer teases that “a familiar face makes an appearance to welcome in the new Operation,” and the following day will kick off the first League Play event. Finally, on February 22, Blackout will get the new Hot Pursuit mode, which introduces three new vehicles: the SUV, PBR, and Muscle Car.

Like Operation Grand Heist, Hot Pursuit will go live first on PS4 and expand to Xbox One and PC the following week. You can read more details about the update on Treyarch’s blog.

Respawn Entertainment has released an update for Apex Legends, its wildly popular battle royale title. The patch, which was detailed on Reddit, is available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Generally, it is focused on reducing crashes and addressing gameplay bugs.

Players on Sony’s console shouldn’t have a more stable experience, as Respawn has addressed an issue with GPU hangs and also resolved crashes that happened when a button was pressed in the loading process. An issue where players would occasionally move slower after a revive has also been resolved, as has one that caused crashes because of Mirage’s special ability. Finally, on Xbox One, crashes related to Gibraltar’s Epic skin have been addressed. Take a look at the full patch notes below.

Apex Legends February 19 Patch Notes

• Fixes for PS4 crash issues.
  • Addresses issues we saw with GPU hangs.
  • Fixed crash when pressing button early in load process.
• Fixed issue where players would sometimes move slowly after revive.
• Fixed issue with Mirage Ability causing crashes.
• Fixed issue with Gibraltar Epic skins on Xbox One causing crashes

Apex Legends launched on February 4, somewhat unexpectedly. The game has taken the world by storm and hit 25 million players in its first week of availability and, at one point, reached “well over” 2 million peak concurrent players. Of course, Fortnite is still very much the genre leader, with 200 million players and a peak concurrent record of 8.3 million players, but it’s been a very strong start for Apex Legends in a highly competitive genre.

In GameSpot’s Apex Legends review, critic Phil Hornshaw awarded the game 9/10. “Apex Legends is a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while addressing a lot of the weaknesses,” he said. “Respawn’s intense focus on team play makes Apex more than just a worthy addition to the genre; it’s an indicator of where battle royale should go in the future.”

If you’ve been playing the game and need a little help improving, make sure to check out our Apex Legends character guides. Each of the playable Legends requires some getting used to, and you’ll have to consider their strengths and weaknesses in battle if you want to be the champion. Our character breakdowns will help you do that. We’re still working our way through the roster, so we’ll have guides for the remaining heroes soon.

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!

Microsoft has rolled out a new selection of Deals with Gold for Xbox One and Xbox 360. This week, Xbox Live Gold subscribers will find discounts on a couple of 2018’s biggest releases, including Red Dead Redemption 2, while publisher Warner Bros. is holding a sale on a range of Lego games across both consoles.

The standard edition of Rockstar’s critically acclaimed western is down to $40.19 USD for Gold subscribers this week. If you have a Gold membership, you can also pick up EA’s latest football game, Madden NFL 19, for $15, while the recent Witcher spin-off Thronebreaker is down to $22.49. Destiny 2‘s big Forsaken expansion is also on sale this week; Gold members can download it for $20.

A number of other Rockstar games are discounted on Xbox 360. Gold members can get Grand Theft Auto V and Max Payne 3 for $10 apiece, the detective game LA Noire for $9, and Bully Scholarship Edition for $6. On top of that, the tactical shooters Sniper Ghost Warrior and Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 are down to $2.24 and $5.24, respectively.

Even if you don’t have an Xbox Live Gold subscription, you’ll be able to find deals on a variety of Lego games, including the recently released Lego DC Super-Villains, which is down to $30. Both Lego Worlds and the GTA-like Lego City Undercover are on sale for $15 apiece, while the Lego Harry Potter Collection is $24.

You can see some other notable deals for both consoles below; the full list can be found on Major Nelson’s blog. All of these deals are set to expire on February 26, so you have until then to take advantage of any that strike your fancy.

This Week’s Xbox Game Deals

Xbox One

Xbox 360

* denotes a Deal with Gold

Anthem is already live for those with early access, but its official launch for all players will come later this week. It will be accompanied by a sizable day-one patch, set to fix a wide array of issues across all platforms just as the broader audience is cracking into the BioWare shooter.

The patch notes list dozens of adjustments, but some are more prominent than others. The so-called “high-level fixes” improve loading times, fix infinite loading bugs and other crashes, fix challenge tracking, and make numbers appear for weapon and gear modifiers. Other notable improvements make the gather party mechanic work more leniently, and unlocks challenges at the correct levels. The notes go on to mention several tweaks for Strongholds, crafting, and other features.

For a few more days, Anthem is only available to those who have either EA Access on Xbox One, or Origin Access on PC. Those players are diving into the game without the benefits of these improvements, so you may have a better overall experience by waiting.

“I’m currently treating Anthem’s disparate missions as an excuse to try a new weapon or special attack, which, combined with flight, gives me incentive to keep going,” wrote critic Kallie Plagge in our early review impressions. “I’m hoping that I get more out of the story as I go on, but so far it’s too generic to get its hooks in me.”

While you wait for release, you can prepare by reading details on how to claim your pre-order and special edition bonuses once you do get your copy. Or just watch the short film from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. The full day-one patch notes are below. Anthem releases for everyone on February 22.

Anthem Day One Update Patch Notes

High level fixes

• Improved loading times
• Fixed many infinite loading screens
• Fixed multiple challenges not tracking properly
• A number of issues have been fixed that were causing players to disconnect or crash
• Weapons and gear now have numbers present for modifiers

General Fixes and Improvements

• Loot Reveal and Expedition Summary now correctly play during the end of expedition screen.
• The gather party mechanic has been made more lenient in a number of situations
• At the end of expedition screen players will no longer get stuck on “Recording Victories” or “Skipping All”.
• Game no longer hangs in Javelin menu when unlocking the second, third or fourth javelin
• During the mission “What Freelancers Do” dying after killing Junkmaw & freeing Arcanists leaves you unable to progress, this has been fixed
• Challenges now unlock for players at the correct levels
• Fixed some camera issues during cutscenes
• Legendary Contracts can now be accepted from the Social Hub contract board
• Some enemies have had their shield values decreased
• Loot now properly drops for players who are downed
• The texture quality on the NPC Prospero has been improved
• Final boss of strongholds now drop loot instead of only being shown on the end of expedition screen
• Fixed the time outs on echoes and relics to prevent griefing and to handle disconnections properly
• Players can no longer fall through the floor during the 3rd trial in the Fortress of Dawn
• Completing the tutorial expedition will now show the correct Ranger appearance
• After disconnecting, rejoining an expedition will now place you back into a squad if you were in one previously
• Corrected an issue where players could not interact with each other in the launch bay in certain circumstances
• Corrected an issue during the Mission “Bad Deal” where outlaws won’t spawn, blocking progress
• The start of expedition screen has been improved
• Addressed a variety of situations where killing enemies does not properly progress world events
• Opening a chest now increments Tomb of the Legionnaire progress for all squad members present
• Scar snipers can no longer shoot through Storm Shield
• Corrected an issue where players would get stuck on the end of expedition screen in some situations
• Players will no longer get disconnected if joining the “Finding Old Friends” mission while the cinematic is playing
• Addressed a number of situations where players can get stuck on the environment in the launch bay
• Increased the damage of the electric status effect
• Corrected an issue where the Shield of Dawn could be crafted with less materials then intended in some situations
• The Platinum Mission feat now grants completion as intended
• Status effects can more reliably be applied to Titans

Strongholds

• Fixed an issue that would cause a Stronghold server crash after defeating the last boss
• Temple of Scar – Players can no longer get stuck in the mined tunnel in the explosives room
• Temple of Scar – Players can no longer be blocked from entering the explosives room due to fog wall
• Fixed Tyrant Mine so people that join the stronghold in-progress do not end up locked away from their team
• Adjusted lighting in Tyrant Mine underwater section to make it easier to navigate to the exit
• The Swarm Tyrant will no longer get stuck in the side cave entrances in some situations
• Corrected an issue where players would spawn into different areas of the Tyrant Mine in certain situations

Gear and Weapons

• After having 1st pilot unlock suit after tutorials, creating a new pilot and going to forge no longer causes load screen hang
• Ice damage bonuses are now correctly applied on ice gear
• Suit-wide bonuses from inscription are now functioning properly
• Players can no longer salvage equipped items
• Javelin specific gear and/or weapons are no longer able to be used on javelins they aren’t intended for
• Corrected an issue where in some circumstances Masterwork Components do not have any inscriptions
• The Endless Siege Masterwork Autocannon no longer displays a damage increase of 0% in its tooltip

Javelins

• The Colossus javelin is now able to activate its shield more quickly after using an ability or firing a weapon
• The Storm javelin now reacts to getting hit when its shields are up
• Fixed an exploit that allowed the Storm’s ultimate attack to be used more times than intended
• The Colossus javelin can now shield and revive at the same time
• Interceptor Combo Aura has been increased in power and now has a damage over time component

Crafting

• Non-Masterwork materials purchased from the crafting store now show as their proper rarity instead of incorrectly showing as Masterwork

Controls

• Additional Mouse and Keyboard control improvements have been made

UI

• Some conversations were not popping up the reputation points post conversation completion, this has been fixed
• The squad screen now displays the correct information for each player
• Fixed a number of issues where subtitles will no longer get stuck on the screen after dialogue has finished as often
• Settings should no longer reset upon exiting and restarting the game on Xbox One
• Motion blur can now correctly be turned off
• The Electric Status Effect now shows scaled damage properly
• An option has been added to hide the Squad Member HUD
• The edge of the compass will now pulse to indicate enemy locations
• A notification has been added in Fort Tarsis if a player’s vault is at the cap of 250 items
• On the “Repair the Strider” step of “A Cry for Help” the search radar has been adjusted to correctly lead the player to all 4 tools
• Primer and Detonator icons have been added to all Interceptor gear
• Corrected a user interface issue where a player’s ultimate would show as available when it isn’t

New York’s Toy Fair may have come to a close, but that doesn’t mean the news of brand-new toys has dried up. Funko has revealed a few more batches of Pop figures, and this time around, it’s from cult classic movies you know and love.

If you’re a fan of the ’80s comedy Ghostbusters, there are plenty of new Pop collectibles to decorate your home with, including a recreation of the Ghostbusters headquarters. Additionally, there are some other comedy classics included in the new lineup like Caddyshack. So, if you wanted a Bill Murray Funko Pop, this is the time to get one. There were also a few X-Men Pops announced as well. They are not movie versions of the character, though.

There were no specific release dates or price points for any of these figures. They are all labelled as “coming soon.” Regardless, here is what Funko announced.

Check out our other Toy Fair stories:

Nintendo has released a new Switch system update, but unfortunately it doesn’t change much. The firmware patch fixes a bug pertaining to Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee / Pikachu and introduces “general system stability improvements.”

As Nintendo’s patch notes state, update 7.0.1 resolves “an issue where the Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee games cannot reconnect to the Pokemon Go app if the game software was closed after pairing with the app.” Aside from that and the general improvements noted above, that’s about it for this latest patch, which is not a mandatory download.

The previous update, version 7.0.0, was similarly minor, despite its round number. That update did at least include some new player icons themed around New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe.

Since then, Nintendo aired its latest Direct presentation, where we got more details on some of the big Switch games coming this year. Super Mario Maker 2 was announced, while a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was also confirmed. For more from the recent presentation, check out all the Nintendo Direct Switch announcements. Alternatively, check out every big new Switch and 3DS game coming in 2019 and beyond.